Cathy Barber
website: http://cathybarber.net/index.htm

Cathy Barber lives in the San Francisco Bay area with her husband and two daughters. She has a Master of Arts degree from California State University, Hayward, where she received awards for her fiction, nonfiction and poetry.

Her work has appeared in numerous print journals including The Sierra Nevada College Review, Roux, and Zillah and in online journals such as Red Booth Review and King Log. Her poem “Last” won second place in Gin Bender’s 2003 poetry contest. She is also an occasional reader for, and her work has appeared in, Tattoo Highway.

She is a poet/teacher with California Poets in the Schools in San Mateo County.


Avian

I attended the wedding as a sparrow
in my drabbest winter clothes.
From high on the back wall,
where I sat hidden in the shadowy angle of the cross,
I studied the lay of the land.

I attended the wedding as a sparrow,
swooping low over the alter, the bride, the groom,
until the minister swung his sleeved arms wildly
and nearly lost his book.
I dropped twigs in the veil.

I attended the wedding as a sparrow
shrilling and trilling during the vows and
willing the echoes to the corners of the sanctuary.
I grabbed at the exiting train with my claws
and made my forked marks.

I attended the wedding as a sparrow
pecking at the plates of reception food when the guests rose to dance
and perching on the wine glasses when they returned to dine,
staring wide-eyed and defiant at their stupid faces.
I gave the cake a highway's worth of tracks around the plastic couple.

I attended the wedding as a sparrow,
who could have chosen to sing the mournful song of love and loss,
but chose instead to take my message to the assembled,
dropping my business willy-nilly on the parquet floor
and shaking my tail of the traces.

 

BACK TO SAN MATEO COUNTY POET TEACHERS